Thanks for all the input, I will at some stage try some Judo (I couldn't find a Judo club that met the requirements you have described) but I have decided to go to a Goju-ryu club run by a 6th Dan Kevin Buxey after doing some research of various clubs in the area. They do full contact Karate so no "points scoring stuff" and run small classes with high grade Instructors and assistants with lots of years of training. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all the input, I will at some stage try some Judo (I couldn't find a Judo club that met the requirements you have described) but I have decided to go to a Goju-ryu club run by a 6th Dan Kevin Buxey after doing some research of various clubs in the area. They do full contact Karate so no "points scoring stuff" and run small classes with high grade Instructors and assistants with lots of years of training. I'll let you know how it goes.

Now your on the right budo no michi.

Don't be surprised if the GKR you've studied before (supposedly based upon Goju) is a world apart from the actual Goju Ryu you're about the experience.

joke name

always thought it was a joke name go kan ryu (kangaroo):biblethum

Originally Posted by DubhGhaill

Go Kan Ryu was founded in 1984, in South Australia, by Robert Sullivan. He was, at the time, a 2nd Dan in Goju. He is now a 7th Dan Kancho and making an awful lot of money.
Go Kan Ryu is big and growing fast. It's primary presence is Aus and UK, but the incursion into the US has begun. It is famous for it's high pressure door to door sales tactics, it's pyramid shaped management structure and it's use of low grades as branch instructors. Intructors who are ranked below 1st Dan wear a black and white belt to conceal their true rank.
Information on grading requirements can be found here:http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscrape...t/1693/id4.htm
but don't let those steep requirements stop you, they also have a direct entry instructor training program. No prior experience required:http://www.gkrkarate.org/pages/career/careerl.html
GKR focuses on non-contact point fighting and 'self-defense'. One online sensei has argued against full contact training asking 'Which would you prefer, to get beaten up a thousand times in training, or once in the street?'
Oh, yes, one more reason they're famous, Gokan means rape in Japanese.
Visit the official GKR website here:http://www.gkrkarate.com/default.asp
or visit the forums here:http://www.gokanryu.info/
registering is required, but I haven't told them you're coming.

in all fairness, I think that most GKR practitioners know no different. Not a fan of these guys, but I do know one or two people at a GKR club who seem happy enough. I always say that a true test of whether or not your training is any good is to attend an open to all styles training Gashuku (weekend course) and compare your level of quality to other students from other clubs of similar grade levels. If you can hold your own, question answered!!

My cousin does GKR and he came over on NYE to celebrate NY with us. We all got drunk and i told all the boys to go to the garage to have a couple rounds of sparring.

Needless to say he got CREAMED by all the boys.

He did however have an awesome reverse punch, which stopped dead in its tracks 2 inches away from us. LOL.

After i invited him to train at the gym with me and he said he felt really at home with GKR and that he will probably stick with them. It didn't surprise me though because while GKR is a massive mcdojo you really do feel welcomed by the people that train there. Its also non contact so he doesn't feel intimidated to walk into our fists like he did on New years.

a lot of clubs have the in-group mentality about things. I know that i've also felt it, and have been put off training at a gym because of the attitude.

It often happens when you come into a club and your the new kid on the block, but because you've been training since your 5, you seem to be able to do almost anything the teacher shows you in about 5 mins.

I started training with GKR when I was 15. I think I was lucky because my sensei, although actually a brown belt, other stuff before, judo and other striking, so I learnt more than just GKR stuff. And for almost a year (I was training 4 nights a week) the classes were really small so we got to do an hour of sparring every night. Contact sparring. But I think I was lucky.

I also had friends who were doing wing chun, jiu jitsu, wrestling, muay thai who I would spar with on weekends, which made me far more aware of what was realistic or practical or not when training in GKR. Of course the instructors would complain about my form picked up from sparring with friends. That's when I knew it was time to do something else. I guess I was always more interested in what works and less about what is 'traditional' (how traditional is a australian karate form anyway?) - maybe that's what attracted me to the russian approach to martial arts.
That was before fully I switched to training in russian style.

I would say GKR is OK to start with for kids, or for exercise. Why not just do kickboxing workouts? If you want to do karate to learn to fight, do Kyokushin.